Sex offenders allowed to work in schools

Daily Mail in the UK has reported that convicted paedophiles are finding it easy to get jobs in American schools because teachers are failing to stop them and hushing up cases of abuse. In some cases background checks are not requested, in other cases these checks are simply ignored. Either way, one issue that the GAO (General Accountability Office) found is that the different laws in different states led to confusion about how to police paedophiles. All too often there was not enough communication between states about offenders either. Furthermore, the claim that administrators have not been properly trained to perform such checks. The Mail goes on to tell us that the GAO researchers looked into 15 sample cases of abuse in public and private schools between 2007 and 2009 where the offenders works as teachers, support staff, volunteers or contractors. Of the 15, at least 11 were convicted sex offenders who had previously targeted children. In six of those cases the paedophiles went on to abuse more children than first time around. It’s shocking the background checks were not performed, yet even more shocking that some were ignored: “In three cases, the GAO found that school officials even provided positive recommendations or reference letters for teachers who voluntarily left but would have been subject to disciplinary action, and in one instance an offender in Arizona was hired even though he answered ‘yes’ on a job application when asked if he had been convicted of a ‘dangerous crime against children'”. This study deems any work to protect children irrelevant, as all the checks put in place are simply being ignored. While the results this study found are appalling, the light at the end of the tunnel is that perhaps it will lead to something being done.]]>